Three Gordon College students calculated that cost to the city and taxpayers after reviewing 500 alarm calls selected randomly from 5,000 logged between Nov. 1, 2005 to Sept. 30, 2006.

The trio found that 443, or 86 percent, of the alarms were false. The other 57 alarms alerted police to building break-ins.

Danae Perkins, Ryan Berger and Patrick Kelley identified an Essex Street market and St. Mary's High School as the biggest sources of false alarms in the city. Plaza Cibaena, St. Mary's and 13 other locations mostly located downtown were responsible for 553 alarms over 11 months. Nine out of 10 of the alarms at the 15 locations were false.

Improperly set motion sensors and employees or residents who use incorrect alarm passwords typically trigger false alarms. But police do not know the alarm is false until they respond to a location. The Gordon students calculated police spent 634 hours in 2005 and 2006 responding to false alarms after building owners or alarm companies failed to reset or turn off an alarm.

"It's carelessness a lot of times," Chief John Suslak said.

The students calculated the number of hours officers spend responding to false alarms and came up with the cost to the city by factoring in hourly wage figures for officers.

Gordon math professor Michael Veatch's students suggested Lynn follow Stoneham's example and fine building owners who log three or more false alarms in one year.

Stoneham's fines start at $25 and escalate to several hundred dollars.

Gordon College is one of the nation's premier Christian colleges and located just north of Boston. We offer students extraordinary access to leading-edge opportunities for intellectual, professional, and leadership development to address the increasingly complex challenges of a global society. Gordon stands apart from other outstanding institutions in New England by combining an exceptional education with an informed Christian faith.